News & Events
03.31.2011
Moisture Control Tubing, Protecting Your Components at a Low Cost (IDK)
Small pneumatic actuators and grippers are great for space
saving, high speed automation tasks, but the amount of compressed
air required to operate them may be so little that they are not
effectively exhausted/refreshed via a long tubing run. When this
happens, moisture in your air line has an opportunity to condense
and collect as water in your actuators. The result: reduced
component life, impaired cycle rates, increased down time and
increased costs.
Protecting your components and process is as simple as replacing
the last few inches of tubing going into your actuators. SMC's new
moisture control tubing is a unique pneumatic drying product that
can eliminate moisture problems before they damage your equipment.
It removes the moisture without any additional energy requirements
and is used only where needed. It is an economical solution when
just a few remote actuators or air operated valves are experiencing
problems.
Other drying options can have several drawbacks. Membrane and
desiccant dryers can reduce the dew point of the air to the point
where the grease in the actuators can be dried. Membrane dryers
require purge air to function and desiccant dryers require
electricity to dry the media for reuse. Both options require more
space than simply replacing a few inches of tubing and would be
more costly than using IDK moisture control tubing.
How does it work? IDK tubing is made from a fluorine resin that
is permeable to moisture. As the humidity of the compressed air
increases in the actuator and adjacent tubing, this moisture
migrates from inside the tubing to the outside where the ambient
air has a lower relative humidity. By maintaining the humidity at a
reduced level, it does not have the opportunity to condense into
water and damage the cylinder.
Why are small actuators or valves at the end of a long run of
tubing likely sites for moisture issues? If the volume of the
tubing is significantly higher than that of the actuator, then the
actuator may be able to exhaust into the tubing without any real
travel of the air back to the directional control valve. Shifting
the control valve to repressurize this line tends to involve little
mixing of the fresh air with that which remained in the line.
Instead, the air molecules near the actuator are pushed back into
the cylinder. Compressing and expanding this stale air through the
ports of the actuator introduces a heating and cooling cycle which
can lead to condensation of vapor into liquid. Once water has
formed, grease can be washed out of the cylinder and/or corrosion
can occur.
IDK moisture control tubing is designed for use with One-touch
fittings, so installation is a snap. Simply disconnect your tubing
from the actuator, insert the IDK tubing into the fittings, and
connect your tubing to the IDK with unions. The largest size only
adds 16g to your assembly including the unions.
Small pneumatic grippers and other actuators can be expensive to
replace. Basic cylinders are less costly, but maintenance costs and
downtime can quickly add up. IDK tubing is a small and simple
investment to make in your system to prevent moisture problems and
maximize the life of your actuators.
Features:
- Removes moisture at the point of use
- Maintains the life of small cylinders, air pilot operated
valves, etc.
- Quickly and easily installed where needed
- Space saving
- No operating costs